Concerned Chums Can Cause Crises
by ElusiveEvan
Summary: Short drabble, done to the prompt Friends for the LiveJournal fanfic100 challenge. HarryGinnyColin, slash, fluff, threesome relationship. Harry is cornered by Ron about where he's been hiding, and on top of that, he's very ill.


Disclaimer: I don't own this!

A/N: This was done for the LJ group FF100's prompt Friends. It's set about three months from The Boys' Day. There is plenty of stuff in between there that I will touch on, but this felt good to write.

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Coughing, Harry descended the stairs, feeling the fluid in his lungs—neumonia no doubt—rattling with each breath. He had given in, Colin had convinced him to go to the nurse. With a heavy cough he hit the bottom step, noticing the scene playing out in front of him. Ron was raving about something, so much that he felt it was necessary to blast a fire conjuration spell at the fireplace every few seconds, drastically raising the Common Room's temperature. Hermione seemed to be in tears, and the rest of the people present were trying to avoid looking at the scene.

Unable to hold it in, he let loose a rough cough, which seemed to be a bad idea. All eyes snapped immediately to him, and his natural reaction was to try to move out of their line of sight immediately. This was made hard to do when you were hacking up your lungs. Sweat already building up from a climbing fever grew more frequent from the warm room. The coughing had given him a headache which seemed to be throbbing.

"What are… what are you playing at?" Ron finally stepped from his spot in front of the fire and launching immediately into attack. "We barely know who you are anymore. You're always gone to breakfast before we're awake, you vanish after dinner, and during break you claim to be at the library, but we can never find you." Harry almost felt hurt. They hadn't believed him enough not to check the library. He also knew he had been lying so they shouldn't have believed him.

Hermione sat resolutely staring into the fire and not speaking. Harry felt a deep stabbing pain to have caused her enough sadness to have Ron this worked up. "We don't know if you've been sneaking off to get pissed somewhere or sneaking off to fight You-Know-Who by yourself without telling us. Either one seems pretty likely with the way you seem to be acting lately."

"Way I'm acting?"

"Harry," Hermione said. "You're acting like you did when you beat Voldemort in our first year and found out that all three of us were okay. Or like you were when you saved Ginny."

"Happy?" he asked, incredulously. "Well, my sincere apologies!"

"No relieved, like you're doing something dangerous and getting away with it and that _scares_ us." _You most of all, I'd bet,_ he thought at her. "And what's more," she paused, standing. "We think you've got Ginny and Collin involved in it, and they won't say _anything_. We hoped _they_ would see sense and tell us what stupid stunt you're pulling."

"Stupid stunt?" he asked, now advancing toward Ron. "Is that what you two think mate? That I'm out nearly getting myself and your sister and his,"—he pointed at Dennis—"killed and not telling you lot that?"

There was a deafening silence, as all other parties in the common room—this being mainly Seamus, Dean, Hermione, Dennis and Parvati—looked at Ron expectantly.

"Yeah," Ron answered, now swelling with indignation. "You're bloody right it is!"

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," he replied. "I wouldn't put either of them in danger." Turning on his heel he moved toward the portrait hole, needing an out. Ginny and Collin, having heard the whole thing, now stood at the base of the steps. "Ever!"

Ron sensed a sudden shift in the room's sympathies, sudden enough to deliver a blow to his head of steam. "Then… what is going on?" Harry launched into another coughing fit which tore through him like a series of convulsions. His throat was raw, his head throbbing. When he finally gained control, he knew he had to answer.

"I can't say," he replied quickly, turning back to Ron.

"Then how do you expect us to believe you, mate?"

"I expect you to trust me!" The feeling of the room changed again, charged with tension. Tears in her eyes, Ginny watched the exchange, Colin repeatedly stealing glances at her to see when he needed to interfere to save her from much pain. That time was quickly approaching, little as he knew it. Hermione didn't gaze at the scene around them, and instead returned to looking into the fire. Ron, feeling as if he was losing face, came in with a hard blow. A very, very hard blow.

"How can we do that when we don't know you? For all we know you three are behind these attacks in town! We all know Voldemort was trying to possess you last year, we know Ginny's been possessed and we know Colin got held by Lucius Malfoy for a week this summer."

Harry paused for the briefest of moments as Hermione exclaimed; "RON!" Suddenly she was alive with indignation, or maybe embarrassment, judging by her reddening face. This meanwhile set Ginny to shaking beside Colin, telling him that things had gone straight downhill without much of a slope.

"So that's what you really think, isn't it?! You think I'm a nutter being controlled by Voldemort to kill muggles? You think I've been doing his bidding? You… You…" The room seemed to pulsate for a moment, as if the very fabric of reality was swelling with indignation, or as if magic was pushing at the same. There was real danger in this moment, but instead of the explosion that Colin saw building behind Harry's eyes, The-Boy-Who-Lived pushed open the portrait and left.

"You arrogant little berk!" Before Colin could react Ginny had advanced with an angry '_Reducto_' and Ron had hit the ground, clutching a clearly broken arm. Colin lunged as Ginny came close to hexing her brother again and dragged her back into his arms. It was with some effort he turned the struggling girl around and turned his own body so that he was in front of Ron's fallen form.

Hermione didn't move from her chair, she was definitely in shock.

"Think, Ginny," he whispered, placing her wand between him and her, blocking her line of attack. "Think about what's more important. Harry's sick, he's angry, and he's tired and if you think he's going to stay in the castle when he's worked up like that, you're nuts. With that storm going on, it's dangerous. And there's only one place Harry goes when he's this unhappy."

The redhead looked from up from struggling to get free of the blonde's arms and nodded quickly, coming to the same realization as Colin. There _was_ only one place; the airspace above the Dark Forest. This was a most dangerous place to be in this weather and in his condition. It was enough to put worry back into Ginny and chase most of the anger out.

Sure enough, a moment later his Firebolt came blasting down the stairs, unable to find a way out upstairs. The portrait was knocked back open with the violent force with which it was hit, and Ginny and Colin watched it shoot off into the body of the castle looking for an open window. "We need to go, Ginny."

She cast a look toward Ron, as if she had unfinished business. Giving a squeeze to her shoulder as if to remind her of the current situation Colin pointed toward the portrait hole. Escorting Ginny, he watched her climb out of the porthole and then finally released his own wave of anger. "Some friends, you lot," he said, gazing at Hermione. "I expect it from Ron. You should have known better." There was recoil of a sort, a lurch, and continued silence. He heard Seamus give a call of protest at his harsh words, but Colin shut the door. For the first time anyone could remember, Colin Creevey had just been very, very rude.

What did that mean?

The school was dark, and it made running down the stairs a slower process, even by candle light than it normally would be. The stairs moved slower too; knowing there was no schedule for anyone to keep, the spell seemed to be moving laxly. It was absolutely infuriating to wait for any staircase to finish turning to a different junction and whatsmore it held them up. It didn't occur to either of them to summon Colin's broom, because frankly, they were more worried about getting out of the school quickly and without being caught.

"Oh, bloody hell," Colin whispered, thrusting himself and Ginny against a wall.

"I know someone was here, I saw them," a voice demanded.

"Will you be quiet," drawled a second. "I saw them too… and I will find out who it was. Be quiet and keep looking."

Filch and Snape had caught sight of Harry, then.

This was going to make their trip out a lot longer.

"Filch, round up the ghosts; I think we're going to need a little bit of assistance." The sound of a cat's purr came to their ears and Colin took off, half dragging Ginny in the opposite direction.

It was going to be a long night.


End file.
